Dead End
by coffeemuse
Summary: #CastleHalloweenBash entry. "On a never ending road in the middle of the woods, the nightmare begins. A mysterious woman in white wanders through the forest, leaving death in her wake. A terrifying black car - its driver seemingly invisible - carries it's victims into the heart of the night. Every road sign points to a destination they never reach..."


My (sad) attempt at the #CastleHalloweenBash.

Prompt taken from castleficpromoter on Tumblr: _Take any horror film and make Castle and Beckett the main characters._

I've chosen the 2003 movie Dead End.

**Storyline: **_The Castle family (Kate, Rick, Alexis and her boyfriend Adam) are headed to their Hampton home for the weekend to celebrate Christmas. Rick has taken the same route for years, but this time, he decides to take a shortcut. On a never ending road in the middle of the woods, the nightmare begins. A mysterious woman in white wanders through the forest, leaving death in her wake. A terrifying black car - its driver seemingly invisible - carries it's victims into the heart of the night. Every road sign points to a destination they never reach. The survivors succumb to panic, and eventually to madness. Deeply buried secrets burst to the surface, and soon enough, their vaction turns into a living hell._

* * *

><p>It starts off as a beautiful winter evening. Snow blankets the city and the air is crisp and cold and everything that you'd expect winter to be. It's only a few days away from Christmas, and the Castle family is loading up in their rented SUV and heading to the Hamptons for the week.<p>

Christmas in the city is beautiful. Everything is decorated with bright lights, and the smell of pepermint mocha fills everyone's nostrils on the streets thanks to the over populated Starbucks shops. "Christmas in a cup!" reads the hand written signs perched on every window of the coffeeshop with an arrow pointing to the entry.

Of course, Castle has nothing against the city or coffee. They're in his top five favorite things in life. But, with Alexis freshly engaged to her boyfriend of two years, Adam, and Kate and Castle deciding it's time to try for a baby, he figured a nice get-a-way to the secluded beach house would be a nice family bonding time.

Kate and Alexis round the SUV meeting Castle in the back. He takes Kate's luggage first and shoves it in the overly spacious trunk, and then does the same with Alexis's. Adam follows behind them with his own luggage, a suitcase and a duffle bag, and stops in front of Castle as if he's not sure he should put his stuff in himself, of let his future father-in-law do it.

"Well?" Castle tells the younger man, raising his eyebrows at him. He nods his head to the back of the vehicle, and Adam scurries to throw his things in. He blinks a few times at Castle and then quickly slides into the back seat with Alexis.

Castle chuckles to himself as he shuts the door. He has nothing against Adam. He's a good kid, he's good to Alexis, and he makes his daughter happy, so he has no complaints. Not really. It's just that he doesn't like his daughter growing up. He still pictures her as a fourteen year old little girl who toted a Hello Kitty bookbag to school, not a twenty-four year old woman with an engagement ring on her finger.

Castle slams the door down and tugs on the handle to make sure it's securely closed before he makes his way to the driver's seat. He slips in and meets Kate who's already buckled in and poking away at her iPad.

She shifts, lifting her legs in the seat sitting indian style. She hits the button on her iPad to make it sleep, and she slips it into it's case and rests it on the floor beneath her.

"You ready?" She asks him, leaning over the console to kiss his shoulder.

He takes in a deep breath and smiles at her. "You betcha."

It's six pm and they've only been on the road for an hour when everyone konks out on him. With the time change, and just winter in general, it get's darker out sooner than it used to.

He looks over at his wife. She has her feet drawn up in the seat, her legs bent with her knees resting against the door, and her head is inbetween the crevis of the head rest and window. She looks warm in snuggly in over over-sized grey sweater, thick black leggings and her Ugg boots.

He checks the rearview mirror and see's that Alexis has fallen asleep on Adam's shoulder, and Adam has his head resting on top of her's. Castle almost smiles at the image, but stops himself.

"Really?" He mumbles to himself, eyeballing his sleeping passengers. He shifts in his seat, straightening his back and putting both hands on the wheel. He tries for the radio, but it's nothing but static cutting in and out. He smashes the knob and cuts the radio off completley.

Castle's taken this trip many times to know that it's long and boring. So when everyone bailed on him for dreamland, he took a side road off of the exit he usually uses. Hoping for a more scenic route, opposed to a metal and cement view, he finds himself driving down a very long and very dark road. Even if it is scenic, he can't tell.

It's almost seven, and he hasn't been driving long, but he's suddenly tired. With no one to keep him company, and the weather interfering with the radio, he finds himself falling into a boredom induced nap.

He's been on this road for a few miles and hasn't seen one car. It's suspicious at first, but it quickly leaves his mind as his eyes drift close. . .They open again quickly, the road signs blurring, and they drift close again.

"DAD!"

He hears Alexis's shrill cry and jerks awake. The blinding lights in front of him startle him and he jerks the wheel to the right avoiding the sudden on-coming car. The car screeches as Castle hits the breaks, everyone flings to the left as the car comes to a sudden hault. The other car zooms by, not even bothering to stop, and before they know it, it dissapears into the night.

Castle pulls off of the side of the road, his hands shaking and his heart thudding heavily in his chest. "Everyone okay?"

Kate's got a hand clutched to her chest. Alexis has her hands covering her face, and Adam looks like he's trying to console her; whispering things into her ear.

"Castle, what happend?" Kate asks, turning to look at him. The look of shock on her face is enough to make him feel _even more _bad for falling asleep at the wheel and almost killing everyone.

"I don't know, I guess I," He sighs, "...fell asleep."

"You fell asleep? _Dad_!" Alexis admonishes from behind him. "How could you fall _asleep_?"

"Well!" He starts, a defending tone to his voice. He turns to eye everyone in the car. "Really? Everyone fell asleep, I got bored. It's not like I _meant _to fall asleep!"

Kate reaches over and takes her husbands shaking one. "Babe, it's okay. We're okay. Let's just get going." She blinks her tired eyes and smiles warmly at him. It calms him down a little.

"I'm sorry everyone. Really," He turns his eyes back to the rearview mirror. "Pumpkin, you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good, dad. Let's just go." She says, avoiding her father's eyes, her voice a little harsh. Castle let's it go, writes it off as being shaken up.

"We'll go in a second, I just want to check out the car." He flings open his door and steps out, closing it behind him. The car's fine, he know's he didn't hit anything. If anything, the breaks are a little more worn in. He just needs a moment to himself. He scrubs a hand down his face as he walks the perimeter of the car. The tires are fine, no dents or scraps. Everything looks good.

Except for his family. He looks in through the back window, see's the silloette of them all crowding around the middle console talking. Well, he see's Kate talking. She probably trying to defend him. Or putting the blame on herself. "_I shouldn't have fallen asleep, I should've been awake keeping him company._" He can hear it now. It only hurts him more.

He scans up and down the deserted street, the only sound he hears is his labored breathing and the chirping of crickets and sounds of other creatures that are lurking about.

He gets back in the car and jams the key into the ignition starting it. It starts right up. _Thank god, _Castle thinks. Almost killing his family is one thing, being stranded in the middle of nowhere on a reltively deserted road is another. . .

"Castle? Where exactly are we?" Kate unfurls the map in her lap, her eyes scanning it over quickly.

"We're on a side road off of the interstate."

"Why didn't you just stay on the interstate?" She doesn't mean for it to come out so intrusive, but it does. And it hits him hard.

"Castle," She whispers, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"It's fine, Kate. I just thought this way would be faster."

"Okay. Rick?" Kate reaches across the space beteween them and cups his cheek, turns his head to face her. "We're okay. Let's go."

He gives her a thin smile, and does what she says.

Castle's lost track of how long they've been driving. The darkness is overwhelming now. The only thing they can see is what's immediately in front of the car. The headlights beam out pretty bright, but it's pitch black and it's impossible to see past them.

Adam looks figity in the back seat, and Castle notices that Alexis has distanced herself a little from him. She's more towards the window, her head lulled to the side watching the blackness pass by.

"Adam?" Castle says, his voice disrupting the even silence in the car startling everyone.

"Sir?"

"You okay, man?"

Adam nods his head. "Yes, sir. Just a little hungry."

Castle nods his head in agreement. "Me, too, now that I think about it. We should be there soon."

"Is there still food left over from when you were there writing a few weeks ago?" Kate pipes in.

Castle nods his head. "Yeah, I stocked up on meats because I knew we'd be coming back."

"Can we not talk about food? I don't feel so well," Alexis says, her hand resting on her stomach.

"What's wrong? Do you need us to pull over?" Adam says, his body on full alert, sitting up and leaning over to look Alexis in the eyes. He runs a hand down her pale cheek softly.

She gives him a watery smile. "I'll be fine. Long car rides make me queasy."

Castle bunched his eyebrows together at her through the rearview mirror. Alexis's has never gotten car sick in her entire life. He wants to say something, but he write this off too...

After a few moments of a somewhat uncomfortable silence, Adam speaks up again.

"Hey, Mr. Castle?"

Castle meets the younger man's eyes in the mirror.

"My watch says it's seven thirty. It's been on seven thirty ever since we woke up."

Castle hits a button on the stereo and bright green numbers flash at him. Seven thirty.

Kate checks her wrist watch and looks up at Castle. "Seven thirty."

He blinks at her and the frown on her face deepens.

Alexis pulls out her cell phone. "Seven thirty," She confirms. "And no signal."

* * *

><p>Okay, this is a bit longer than I originally planned, but I couldn't find a good break off point. TBC...?<p>

You can find me on Twitter: actuallybeckett. (Link is in my bio)

Happy Castle Monday!

XO,  
>CM<p> 


End file.
